Frequently Asked Questions

How do you calculate standard scores for the database variables?

The level, importance and frequency scales each have a different range of possible scores. Ratings on Level were collected on a 0-7 scale, ratings on Importance were collected on a 1-5 scale, and ratings on Frequency were collected on a 1-4 scale. To make reports generated by O*NET OnLine more intuitively understandable to users, descriptor average ratings were standardized to a scale ranging from 0 to 100. The equation for conversion of original ratings to standardized scores is:

S = ( (O - L) / (H - L) ) * 100

where S is the standardized score, O is the original rating score on one of the three scales, L is the lowest possible score on the rating scale used, and H is the highest possible score on the rating scale used. For example, an original Importance rating score of 3 is converted to a standardized score of 50 (50 = [ [3 - 1] / [5 - 1] ] * 100). For another example, an original Level rating score of 5 is converted to a standardized score of 71 (71 = [ [5 - 0] / [7 - 0] ] * 100).